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Opinions on cover designs for my novels

Hi
I'd be very interested in any feedback on the cover designs for my novels.
I've 3 books in my Jangada saga so far - all available on Kindle and Amazon, but I'm tempted to redo the art on them all and relaunch them at some time in the future. So feedback would be really useful as to what people like, are intrigued by and downright hate.

The series is set in a 'pocket universe' whose inhabitants refer to it as Jangada. This universe is made up a series of floating islands separated by vast distances with the only passage between them via airships run by 'the guild'.
The general level of technology is roughly Renaissance, so the technology that controls the universe and floating islands is almost magic (i.e. built by the gods before the shattering - the cataclysmic event that broke up the islands from one continent in the remote past).

This is book 1: The cover image shows a Guardian - a creature out of Janagda's legends.
Cover_Book1b_1600.jpg
 
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Book 2 has a picture of the starcorss - a living creature turned into an airship, and on which most of the book's action takes place. (Normally airships are just made from the dead creature's skin).
Cover_Book2_1600.jpg
 
The 3rd book shows the mysterious island of El at the center of Jangada - the destination and focus for the first 3 books.
Cover_Book3_1600.jpg
 
Finally I compiled the three books into an omnibus edition and game them a unique cover that shows the Starcross passing beneath the island of Kkromer:
Cover_composite2_picture1600.jpg
 
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TWErvin2

Auror
In thumbnail size, there isn't enough contrast in colors, and everything blends. 1 and 4 not as bad as 2 and 3.
The font/words disappear, except for the title, which does show up well enough for 1 and 4 (the combination book).

I don't understand why you don't have a space after the line on the back that announces the title and # of the book in the series. Since you don't indent, and there's plenty of space on the back, the space for formatting might be better.

Just my two cents.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I looked at the covers first and read the posts after.

I like the first one with the silhouette and the coloring of it. It feels a little bit ominous, almost demonic, in nature. I feel that the other three don't match very well with it. The three blue-ish covers have all roughly the same feel to them, but the first one feels different, like it's the odd one out.

I'm not a fan of the font for the sub-title and your name. It feels a bit tacked on and doesn't "work" with the images and the main title font.
I do like the way JANGADA is written though.
 
Thanks for the good feedback - very useful.

TWErvin2 - you're right - I do need to format the text on the back a bit differently. But there's not as much space as you think on the back when you allow for the barcode box ;)

However you're both right on the colours - I went for a watercolour look and it hasn't quite worked so I think I need to increase the contrast a bit more and make books 2 and 3 more dramatic.

I tend to prefer plain fonts to ornate ones - but I think you're right Svrtnsse, and I could do more with them - I'll look at those again.
 
I think the colour choices could definitely be improved. The artwork itself is quite beautiful, and definitely a good choice, but, as TWErvin said, the lack of contrast is a problem. In visual art, the eye is drawn to and intrigued by that which it cannot easily comprehend - a three-eyed raven is more interesting than a regular raven, opposite colours (like gold and purple, orange and blue, etc.) jump out more than different shades of the same hue. By that same token, there does need to be some consistency, otherwise people are too confronted by it - our brains enjoy a fairly broad but still limited window of colour and contrast.

I would recommend changing the outline of the first title to either a golden colour, or dark pthalo-type blue. It will be more inviting if the colour scheme is all warm - even a different type of lilac could work, but it should all be warm, otherwise the brain is confused.

With the second and third one, definitely outline it in warm yellow or gold. Against blue and purpleish, it will jump out brilliantly.

With the third one, I'd say make the floating isle look a little more sketchy - up the top of it, it looks quite detailed, whereas the style is intentionally quite vague and watercolour-y.

As for the fonts, I can see what Svrtnsse means. I think you just need to make sure the font faces are uniformly either seriff or sans, not have both of them right next to each other.

Hmmm... yeah. Hopefully none of that sounds rude or intrusive - and if you don't like my ideas, don't worry, I won't be offended. :)

-Griff
 

Foah

Troubadour
Like some people have mentioned, the big problem I see is coloring. If you don't feel like reading up on the "science" in coloring, try playing around with something like PALETTON to find color combinations that work well :)
 
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